More tabs from my browser…

The best way I know to get all these want-to-read items cleared off my browser is to blog them while I read!

BLDGBLOG led to this

ATLAS OF HIDDEN WATER led to this

WHYMAP (World-wide Hydrogeological Mapping and Assessment Programme)

…water water everywhere and piracy on the high seas (arrrgh, matey)

Naturally Blackwater wants a piece of the action…

… some cogent Blackwater and Xtian Fundy analysis in a Prop 8 context…

Andrew Sullivan notes today that one of the biggest financial supporters of the Yes on 8 campaign is Elsa Prince Broekhuizen, who has pumped $450,000 into the campaign. Broekhuizen is the mother of Blackwater founder and owner Erik Prince and Bush Pioneer Betsy DeVos. She’s also quite the patron of the religious right.

And what rock did they find Sarah Palin (“a fatal cancer to the Republican Party”) under anyway? More of that xtian fundy influence, I’m afraid.

Twitter as a continuity of government operations tool…

Somebody oughta department: Somebody oughta come up with a list of lists of people using twitter.

What to do with all those Robert Parker novels you read on airplanes…

The Science Debate, before and after!

US Referendum on Socialism! We won!

“This campaign in the next couple of weeks is about one thing,” Todd Akin, a Republican congressman from Missouri, told a McCain rally outside St. Louis. “It’s a referendum on socialism.” “With all due respect,” Senator George Voinovich, Republican of Ohio, said, “the man is a socialist.” At an airport rally in Roswell, New Mexico, a well-known landing spot for space aliens, Governor Palin warned against Obama’s tax proposals. “Friends,” she said, “now is no time to experiment with socialism.” And McCain, discussing those proposals, agreed that they sounded “a lot like socialism.”

Liz Ditz’ candidate lost… better luck next time Cthulhu

Urban Homesteaders blog ring…

Project Free TV… catching up with Mad Men

Washington’s darkest secret…

Some years ago I had the privilege of meeting Sir Alan, or more simply, His Worship, as he was then known. It was at a Washington reception hosted by a prominent Wall Street law firm with which my employer was doing business. One of the lawyers took me in hand and led me up to the Chairman. I was prepared for the dour countenance of the man Ayn Rand had called “the undertaker.” But I was taken aback by the singular lack of vigor in his handshake…

Stiglitz on where do we go from here (thanks Tom)…

Economic theory – and historical experience – long ago proved the need for regulation of financial markets. But ever since the Reagan presidency, deregulation has been the prevailing religion. Never mind that the few times “free banking” has been tried – most recently in Pinochet’s Chile, under the influence of the doctrinaire free-market theorist Milton Friedman – the experiment has ended in disaster. Chile is still paying back the debts from its misadventure. With massive problems in 1987 (remember Black Friday, when stock markets plunged almost 25 percent), 1989 (the savings-and-loan debacle), 1997 (the East Asia financial crisis), 1998 (the bailout of Long Term Capital Management), and 2001–02 (the collapses of Enron and WorldCom), one might think there would be more skepticism about the wisdom of leaving markets to themselves.

More news links…

Bogotá, Colombia - With the death of three senior Colombian rebel commanders, the bloodless rescue of 14 top hostages, and the seizure of thousands of guerrilla computer files, this should have been a triumphant year for Colombia’s military.

The Army’s successes, however, have been muted by a macabre revelation that the Colombian military reportedly killed civilians to inflate their rebel body count in an effort to appear more successful….

and…
Rabbi Michael Lerner’s concerns about Rahm Emanuel

and, a more middle of the road perspective…

If the Republicans’ most important priority is damaging Mr. Obama in order to create a more favorable political landscape for themselves in 2010 and 2012, then they will be disappointed in Emanuel’s decision to take the job. If they would like to find a way to work with the new president to address the nation’s extraordinary array of policy challenges, then they should be very pleased that he will return to his old stomping grounds.